1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a visiting card marked with discriminating symbols and a method of and an apparatus for reading what is printed on the visiting card. More particularly, this invention relates to a visiting card with symbols for discriminating each of the bearer's identification items, such as his/her company name, position title or own name, from others, each of the symbols being marked on the right of, the left of, above or below each of the identification items in a corresponding manner on the margin of the visiting card, a method of reading the discriminating symbols and the identification items (hereinafter, occasionally collectively referred to as the information on the visiting card) by an optical means, and an apparatus for use in the embodiment of the method.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Visiting cards are used in almost every country of the world for making self-introductions, for both official and private purposes. Exchanging visiting cards creates a friendly atmosphere between strangers, which can lead to the development of good relationships and better business discussions. Especially, when first meeting a person who speaks a different language, if your identification items are printed on a visiting card in a language the other person can understand, the visiting card helps him/her obtain the correct information about your position, name, and so forth.
Nevertheless, visiting cards are widely used by a great number of people and it is very difficult to keep received cards in good order and thus be able to find the card required without a long search. Accordingly, album type books and file boxes with partitions are available on the market to eliminate the inconvenience in arranging visiting cards stated above. But, even with these seemingly handy tools, it still takes a lot of time and labor to keep received visiting cards in good order. Especially, if a key-word needed for the search should be omitted, one must look for the required visiting card by scanning them all one by one. Also, with the above systems, it is difficult to prepare a list of the staff in a certain Company or to look for an associate who can afford the time to play golf with you, for example.
For the above reasons, a method of manually inputting the identification items on a visiting card to a computer, either by company, section or position, has been developed so that the information on each visiting card can be accessed by the retrieval of the stored data. However, this system requires time and labor for inputting the information on a visiting card, and too much time is wasted and cost incurred. Therefore, the system has not been used as widely as expected.